Bekker's Blog by Scott Bekker, Editor in Chief

Third-Party Cloud Backup Now Included in Microsoft IUR

Microsoft partners with competencies or Action Pack subscriptions have access to a new internal use rights (IUR) benefit that allows free access to a third-party cloud backup solution.

SkyKick, the Seattle-based cloud migration and management company specializing in Microsoft Office 365 tools for partners, will provide its Cloud Backup application on a free trial basis through the IUR benefit of the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN).

Generally, IURs apply to Microsoft's own products that fully registered partners get to use on a not-for-resale basis in order to run their businesses and simultaneously get more familiar with the products those partners are helping sell to customers. Earlier this year, Microsoft entered an unusual relationship with SkyKick when it added the third-party SkyKick Migration Suite to the IUR program.

The addition of the SkyKick Cloud Backup product expands that relationship with another product that is thoroughly enmeshed in the Microsoft cloud stack. SkyKick Cloud Backup is designed to back up Office 365 data from Exchange, SharePoint and OneDrive for Business to the Microsoft Azure cloud.

"Backing up data can be a slow, clumsy, and risky process, so many organizations choose not to perform back-ups as often as they know they should. This offer provides you with a great opportunity to back up your Exchange, SharePoint, or OneDrive for Business data and increase familiarity with Microsoft Azure, the simple, trusted, and reliable cloud platform," wrote Gavriella Schuster, general manager of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group, in a blog post to partners this week. "SkyKick's Cloud Backup is an exciting cloud service that utilizes Azure that you can use to enhance your support offerings and increase profitability."

As well as being a free benefit to partners, the IUR inclusion is a boost for SkyKick for what amounts to a new product in the crowded online backup realm. It is now immediately available to Microsoft's tens of thousands of partners in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

"Thousands of partners around the world have used SkyKick's Migration Suites to move their customers to Office 365," said SkyKick Co-CEO Evan Richman in a statement Wednesday. "The Azure IUR Cloud Backup offer is our next step forward in delivering innovative products which enable Microsoft partners to build a more profitable, efficient and risk-free cloud business all on one unified platform."

The previous SkyKick promotion was clouded in uncertainty for partners because that migration offer was announced in March 2015 and expired at the end of Microsoft's fiscal year just three months later. Announced much earlier in Microsoft's fiscal year and running through June 2016, this offer has a much longer runway to allow partners sufficient time after setting it up to test the software.

The companies also disclosed that the SkyKick Migration Suite is available as part of the MPN IURs once again, also through June 2016.